ArticleNeuroendocrinology2025
Cocaine Self-Administration Differentially Modulates the Content of Cholesterol, Progesterone, and Testosterone in the Brain and Plasma of Male Rats.
Article in Neuroendocrinology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionChronic cocaine exposure results in changes in circulating steroid hormones, which is known to be associated with cocaine-seeking and cocaine-taking behavior. However, whether cocaine also alters the brain content of these steroid hormones and cholesterol, a precursor to all steroid hormones, has yet to be extensively investigated. Thus, the goal of this study was to determine whether cocaine self-administration (SA) altered the content of cholesterol and steroid hormones (progesterone and testosterone) in both the plasma and the brain of animals.
methodsMale Sprague-Dawley rats were allowed to self-administer cocaine (1.5 mg/kg/infusion) for a maximum of 40 injections within 6 h per day for 5 consecutive days followed by cue reactivity test and cocaine SA under the progressive ratio schedule as a measure of motivation to acquire cocaine. Eighteen hours after the last behavior test, the blood and brain tissue, including the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and dorsal striatum (CPu), were collected for biochemical assays.
resultsWhile cocaine SA did not alter the content of cholesterol and progesterone in the plasma, it reduced cholesterol content and almost completely abolished progesterone content in both the PFC and CPu. Further, testosterone levels were reduced in the CPu and plasma. Notably, plasma testosterone was positively correlated with its content in the PFC and CPu.
conclusionsCholesterol and progesterone in the brain are more sensitive to changes induced by cocaine SA than those in the plasma. Future studies should focus on understanding the functional consequence of altered brain steroids on neurotransmission and cocaine-seeking and cocaine-taking behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.